FAMILY71ES 



Holiday visitors encounter reminders of the 

 Foys' historic tie to Poplar Grove — the family 

 Bible, deed box, photographs, unique pieces 

 of family furniture, linens, wedding dresses and 

 christening gowns. 



Until 1 971 , when the family sold the 

 mansion and 1 6 acres of land, generations of 

 Foys lived and worked on the plantation that 

 James Foyjr. purchased in 1795. Its 628 acres 

 included 64 slaves, a mansion on Futch Creek, 



The ingenious Foy designed the wooden 

 columns to conceal gutters and downspouts 

 that delivered water to a cistern on the north 

 side of the house. The collected water was used 

 for bathing and laundry. Drinking water was 

 pumped from the well. 



Poplar Grove prospered until the Civil War, 

 when Union armies commandeered, destroyed 

 or damaged the family's property, including 

 beehives, food stores, mules and horses. Legend 

 has it that family members saved one swayback 



CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Poplar Grove Plantation is 'dressed' for the 

 holidays. • DocentVicki Blacet places traditional ornaments on one of the 

 mansion trees. • Mary Frances Foy Sanders, Abbey Foy Anger and Theresa 

 Foy Hall have fond memories of growing up at Poplar Grove. 



and "the banks," now called Figure Eight Island. 



When the onginal manor house was de- 

 stroyed by fire, James Mumford Foy — believed to 

 be the first man to raise peanuts on a large scale 

 in North Carolina — rebuilt the family mansion at 

 its present location in 1 850. Most of the building 

 materials came from the plantation — from brick 

 for 1 2 fireplaces and chimneys to the heart pine 

 for interior and exterior construction. 



horse from the occupying 

 troops by hiding it in a bed- 

 room and "warning" soldiers 

 not to open the sealed room 

 where a dying relative was quar- 

 antined with a deadly disease. 



After the war, James T. 

 Foy and his wife, Sara Eleanor 

 (Nora) DozierFoy, restored the 

 plantation to sound economic 

 footing thanks to successful 

 peanut cash crops. They would play important 

 roles in Wilmington's post-war days. 



James T. Foy was influential in bringing the 

 Wilmington, Onslow and East Carolina Railway 

 to foster regional prosperity. Nora Foy became 

 postmistress, distributing mail to customers on 

 the front porch through a window of the "morn- 

 ing room," which served as the plantation's 

 business office. 



Childless, the couple left Poplar Grove 

 to their nephew, Robert.L. Foy Sr., whom they 

 adopted when he was about 1 1 years old. He 

 would guide the plantation into modern times 

 and through the dark Depression era. 



While times were difficult, Robert.L. Foy 

 Sr. and his wife, Elizabeth Abbey Foy, managed 

 to indulge their daughters and son, Robert. L. 

 Foy Jr. 



"We were out in the boondocks. Electricity 

 wasn't installed until 1 937 — and there was 



practically nothing between here 

 and Wilmington," says daughter 

 Abbey Foy Anger. "Dad was in 

 the lumber business and built 

 a guest house on the sound 

 with a bathroom, kitchen and 

 bedroom. Guests who came to 

 Poplar Grove for parties stayed 

 there. Or, when summer nights 

 were too hot in the big house, we 

 would sleep out on the porch of 

 the sound house." 



Today, the mansion and 

 outbuildings — a kitchen, smoke- 

 house, country store, weaving, 

 blacksmith and basket shops, 

 and a tenant house — serve as a 

 museum complex. But, the Foy 

 sisters and their brother, also an 

 octogenarian, remain connected 

 to Poplar Grove. Each of them 

 has a home on their ancestral land between the 

 mansion and Topsail Sound. 



The nonprofit Poplar Grove Foundation 

 guards this jewel of southern coastal living 

 through research, preservation of the property 

 and artifacts, and the interpretation of a 1 9th- 

 century plantation community. 



Poplar Grove Plantation is located at 

 10200 U.S. 1 7 North in the Scott's Hill area of 

 Wilmington. It is open to the public nearly year- 

 round, Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. 

 to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon until 5 p.m. It 

 is closed Easter and Thanksgiving, and between 

 Chnstmas and the first Monday in February. A 

 nominal fee, waived for the holiday open house, 

 helps with the foundation's preservation efforts. 



For information about individual or group 

 tours, call 910/686-9518 or go online to www. 

 poplargrove.com. 



COASTWATCH 13 



